Philip Lewis Friedman is a very successful writer, though not the most likeable of people. He has no shame in bragging and expressing his genius, but his persistent self-involvement starts to put quite a strain on his relationship with girlfriend Ashley. Not only that, but while the people around him are suffocating in his endless egoism, he's also finding the humdrum world of life at home particularly difficult to stomach - even without his romance issues. Soon, though, he is offered some solace when he meets his all-time favourite author Ike Zimmerman who invites him to stay with him at his country retreat and reassess his life, love and career. Will he learn to realise and appreciate the truly important things in his life? And will they even be around anymore once he has?

'Listen Up Philip' is a comedy drama which made its premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. It has been directed and written by Alex Ross Perry ('The Color Wheel', 'Impolex'), and has already landed several awards at a handful of other film festivals such as Locarno International and Philadelphia Film Festival. It is set to be released in cinemas in the UK on June 5th 2015.

A beer cozy that one of the characters in Old Joy holds says "Whatever Happened, I Didn't Do It!" It's a small detail, but it is crucial to understanding Kelly Reichardt's tale of a burnt-out friendship trying to get sparked on a trip to a hot springs in the woods of Oregon.

Mark (Daniel London) meditates on the back lawn of his tiny suburban home in the rainy desolation of Portland. Unlike his old best friend Kurt (Will Oldham), Mark has become a modern man: He has a wife, a kid on the way, and watches his health with a focused eye. Kurt, on the left hand, still makes his bed in his van or on a random friend's floor, has a hash pipe glued to his mouth, and still detests cell phones. It is Kurt's idea for them to hike into the maze of green foliage in the Oregon forest to find the hot springs they are so mildly excited about, accompanied by Mark's dog Lucy.

Take a cast, temptingly mixed with up-and-comers, never-will-be's, and crazy non-sequiturs like Tim Curry, and toss them into a highly unlikely caper/noir and what do you get? Well, a predictably messy, yet surprisingly fun, bit of cinema.

Sure 'nuff, I never could have expected the day when Olivia Williams (Rushmore) and Balthazar Getty (Shadow Hours) would appear in the same film -- much less play lovers. And in fact, the rest of 4 Dogs Playing Poker is just as improbable, with Tim Curry(!) leading four young and aspiring art thieves on a caper in Argentina, only to blow it by failing to ensure the loot is shipped to the man (Forest Whitaker) who comissioned the gig. Our young heroes find themselves in a bind, as Curry gets snuffed and they are asked to pay up $1 million for the objet d'art gone missing. Their plan: insure each of their lives for a mil, then secretly and randomly assign one of the four to kill another, thus collecting the payoff fee.

Inspired by its fellow mockumentary David Holzman's Diary, this look at an "on the cusp" starlet named Lisa Picard (Laura Kirk) asks us how fame changes a person. In the hands of quirky director Griffin Dunne we get an often funny and often stilted gag on superficiality in Hollywood. Worth a peek, worth a giggle.

Ironically, what I was most excited about seeing in Patch Adams is what eventually left me feeling cheated by it in the end. After seeing the trailers, I knew I was going to get Robin Williams playing that lovably sensitive, extremely funny man, that shows people there's more to life. You know, the guy from Dead Poets Soceity and Good Will Hunting. I love that guy; probably because he had truly inspired me before. And things were going so well for the first two-thirds of this movie too. Until it was over and I thought to myself, "Wait, I think I've seen this movie before."

In the end, my impression of Patch Adamsis that is has some really funny scenes, and you can't help but fall in love with the guy when he's doing all of these great things, a lot of which you have probbly seen in the trailers. And he has a lot to teach everyone he comes into contact with in the film. So throughout I'm thinking, "What a great guy; I wish I was more like him." Which is always a good set-up. But it never follows through. The dramatic conclusion falls flat, and based on a true story or not, the plot points are a bit cliched. Patch Adamsis a comedy, but more appropriately it would be classified as an inspirational film. And the hallmark of the inspirational film is that climactic scene at the end where the inspirational character takes a stand and is met by stiff consequences, but ultimately we realize that he made a difference. You see it in Dead Poets Soceity in the "Oh Captain, my captain" scene. In Patch Adamsthough, it never comes. Though Patch does take an emotional stand at the end in a scene that tries to steal the emotion of a film like Dead Poets Soceity, I don't know that we're convinced that he truly made a difference. He is a great guy, yes, but maybe not great enough.

Lisa Picard is a struggling New York actress who has had her 15 minutes and just doesn't realize it yet. She starred in a rather carnal breakfast-in-bed commercial for Wheat Chex that made her notorious and got her fired from her steady job playing "Sally Starfish" in a production that tours elementary schools.

"If the director's cut could be seen, this would be a non-issue," she grouses in "Lisa Picard Is Famous" -- an inept documentary by an under-prepared filmmaker who has decided this starlet is on the verge of being discovered and he's determined to capture the moment when it happens.

In actuality, "Lisa Picard Is Famous" is a mock documentary by actor-director Griffin Dunne ("Practical Magic,""Addicted to Love") -- and a whimsically sardonic concept that just doesn't quite congeal because the movie is more uncomfortable than it is funny.

Before I launch into what could read like an unabashedly positive review of the Steven Spielberg-Tom Cruise sci-fi collaboration "Minority Report," let me get off my chest the two things that ultimately torpedo the movie's excitement and stylistic brilliance. Both problems come toward the end of the film, but I'll be vague so as not to spoil anything.

1) The whole plot resolution hinges on that tired and idiotic cliché of an antagonist giving himself/herself away through a verbal slip-up. ("Wait a minute!" replies a protagonist, "I never said...")

There is just no excuse for this kind of screenwriting shortcut in this day and age. It's an insult to intelligent moviegoers, especially in a film that is so enthralling until such bogus Hollywood gimmickry leaves it with a bad aftertaste.